When Joe Gorga told Melissa Gorga that his parents view her as the devil, The Real Housewives of New Jerseyaudience recoiled in horror. It's not because the words were so harsh, but because it was hard and fast evidence that Teresa Giudice's plan had worked. She'd somehow managed to turn her parents against their daughter-in-law -- the ultimate power play in any family, but especially a "tick as teives" Italian brood from northern New Jersey.

Had we underestimated Teresa's power? Her prior attempts at shaming Melissa had epically backfired -- the Porsche fashion show set-up was more obvious than Joe Giudice's drinking problem -- we weren't quite sure that Tre could do anything stealthily, anything under the radar, anything that could actually hurt Melissa.

Leave it to Teresa to drag her parents into the drama and take her own family down with an inside job. Stealth at its best.

Melissa blogged on Bravo that things are way better with her in-laws now, explaining that Joe and Teresa's parents were only getting one side of the story, the bad side, and that they now know that their marriage isn't as horrible as Teresa makes it seem.

But Melissa learned a valuable lesson -- if she wants to have her in-laws' respect, she has to be kind to Teresa, or at least make up with her. Teresa's evil enough to try and pit her parents against her brother and it's up to Melissa to make nice.